Uganda: Happy New Year – Is the World Happy?

It is a New Year, so happy New Year. But isn’t this what I wished you and the world last year and the year before? Are you happy? If you are, good for you, but is the world a happy world?

Let us pretend it is, wars have given way to peace, child soldiers are no longer employed (bought from their families) to fight other people’s conflicts. They, alongside thousands of other children are in schools, studying, playing and going back to a home with a roof, to a decent meal, light and a blanket, the warm hugs of their parents, the anecdotes of the grandparents and the support of a loving neighbourhood, simple things made difficult to get because of greed and corruption.

Let us pretend that wars are no more and there are no refugee boats crossing the rough seas, let us assume people are back in their countries. In villages planting their produce to make a living, in towns going to their work, builders, nurses, teachers, cleaners, doctors, architects, each doing what they can to build their own country, not waiting for a charitable hand to provide them with food and shelter and be considered as second-class citizens.

Let us imagine waking up in the morning and walking to the baker to buy fresh bread, the bakery’s aroma makes one feel alive and happy, it is just bread, but it means so much.

Let us pretend that women have been finally given their full, equal rights, that they occupy decision making positions in a society that they consist half of. Let us pretend that they do not have to act like men to compete with them, using the God given female instincts that will help humanity tread on the path of peace and love, mothers, mothers will not send their children to war, they will fight for peace, they will opt for conflict resolution rather than conflict. Let us pretend young girls are no longer trafficked as sex slaves, forced into child marriages, abused in the name of culture, oppressed in the name of religion.

And when we are done with pretending, we realise that daydreaming helps no one. A happy new year is a year where all humans feel happy, not just me, my family and my friends. How to help make the world a better place, is a question everyone should ask oneself on daily basis, the answer is only known to you!